Effective tax rates for bank entities across European Union. The role of loan loss provisions

The paper investigates the impact of loan loss provisions (LLPs) on bank-specific effective tax rates (ETRs) using data of 2943 banks from European Union during 2007-2014.As control variables we used size, equity, fixed assets and return on assets (ROA), while the specific country-year tax reforms were captured using Devereux-Griffith effective tax rates. The results prove robust to different model estimators and sample selections, which suggests that LLPs act systematically towards the reduction of the bank entities’ corporate tax burden. When distinguishing between two banking business models, respectively shareholders-value (commercial banks) and stakeholders-value banks (savings and cooperative banks), empirical findings indicate that provisions negatively affects the former (commercial banks) specific ETRs, whereas for the latter (savings and cooperative banks), no statistical significant effect was detected. From policy perspective, in the context of the switch from the incurred-loss model to the expected-loss model with respect to LLPs (IFRS 9), this may signal additional tax bill reduction for bank entities, if decision makers fail to react promptly. Finally, looking at types of banks investigated, the results show that among all three categories of banks, commercial banks manage to avoid the increase of tax bill driven by some bank-specific determinants (i.e. ROA), while maximizing the tax savings driven by others (i.e. capital intensity), thus suggesting more tax planning oriented behaviour as compared to savings and cooperative banks

The impact of quality of loans on the performance of banks

The management of credit risk entails the necessity of the analysis of the way the quality of the credit portfolio evolves in time. The rating of the quality of assets reflects the potential risk of loans, of investment and of other assets, as well as of the off-balance sheet transactions. The evaluation of the quality of assets must be also analyzed depending on their level of provisions, also it is necessary to consider all other risks that can affect the capitalization of the assets of the bank, including the operational, market, reputation and strategy risks

Risk arbitrage in emerging Europe: are cross-border mergers and acquisition deals more risky?

Speculation spread in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), measured as the percentage difference between the offer price and the closing stock price of a target the day after the announcement, is the starting point for risk arbitrage returns, a topic receiving greater consideration both in practice and in the empirical literature. Reflecting the degree of risk in merger arbitrage investments, we found no significant difference between the speculation spread in domestic and foreign Polish deals, between 2000 and 2013. However, we found higher returns for cross-border portfolio, therefore investors seem more pessimistic with regards to the expected risk in cross-border deals. Also, on average, deal spreads do not correctly reflect the level of risk in merger arbitrage strategies with Polish targets

Financial crisis and bank efficiency: An empirical study of European banks

This article uses the frontier technique to highlight the differences in the impact of the global financial crisis on the efficiency of 783 commercial banks from the EU during the period 2004–2010. We emphasise the distinctions between large and small banks, publicly traded and privately held banks, as well as the statuses of banks’ country of origin, especially for the year in which they joined the EU and held eurozone membership. Our results show that the crisis has a significant and positive im pact on both the cost and profit inefficienciesof the commercial banks from the EU, and that this impact is higher on eurozone banks. In terms of cost efficiency, the most affected by the crisis are the large publicly traded banks, operating in old members of the EU. With regard to the profit inefficiency, the global financial crisis seems to have had a lower impact on the large public banks

The Impact of International Financial Crisis on Bank Performance in Eastern and Central European Countries

In this paper we investigate the determinants of bank profitability in 10 countries from Central and Eastern Europe, in the period between 2004 and 2013. We proxy the profitability of banks with more commonly used ratio: the return on assets (ROA), computed as a ratio of the net profit to the total bank assets. We used multiple regression with bank specific variables, banking industry variables and macroeconomic variables. Moreover, we added a global financial crisis dummy to highlight the crisis impact on asset return. OLS is the main estimation method, but we also used difference-in-difference in order to test if the crisis impact was amplified or diminished by the bank specific characteristics. The evidence shows significant differences between the profit levels of the CEEC banks. Our results are in line with the empirical literature. The impact of the international financial crisis on ROA was negative and statistically significant, as expected. The second part of the analysis we separate the banks sample in three categories: banks with high capital adequacy, large banks by total assets and foreign-owned banks. Our findings show that the three selected variables both amplified and decreased the crisis effect

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic Through the Lens of the CDS Spreads

In this paper we are analysing the impact of the general lockdown meas-ures imposed in Italy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic on European banks’ CDS spreads. Compared to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sovereign risk, we find little evidence of increased bank risk following the event. However, investors’ reaction was clearly negative in longer time frames. In addition, we quantify the feedback loop be-tween sovereign and bank risk and document an increased interconnectedness between sovereigns and banks during the current health crisis, however with a smaller magnitude comparing to the sovereign debt crisis. Banks are now more resilient to shocks, being a direct consequence of the post-crisis regulator y framework

Determinants of Bank M&As in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper analyzes the determinants of bank mergers and acquisitions (M&As) from a bank-level perspective. The main objective of the study is to identify those mutual characteristics of all banking institutions from Central and Eastern Europe that are prone to be acquired versus acquirer, or national versus cross-border. Using a database of more than 200 M&As transactions between 2000 and 2018 within Central and Eastern Europe, we document the main characteristics that influence the decision of merging, including the size of the bank, profitability, lending activities, liquidity, bank concentration, banking system stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and the level of inflation. Higher effective average tax rate, which is associated with reduced tax avoidance, influences banks in a positive manner to be involved in the M&A process, findings that hold for targeted banks and domestic transactions. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the changes the financial crisis has projected on investors’ behavior

The effectiveness of policy interventions in CEE countries

This paper assesses the effectiveness of intervention measures adopted by central authorities during 2005-2012 in CEE. We investigate their impact on bank stability in 15 countries from CEE using bank-level data and OLS estimation method. The bank stability is proxied by the natural logarithm of the Z-Score and the non-performing loans to gross loans ratio. Empirical findings suggest that interest rates cuts, as well as domestic and foreign liquidity injections have a significant impact on bank stability in Emerging Europe. Moreover, their effectiveness differs according to several bank characteristics. Policy measures adopted by CEE countries significantly reduced the stability of domestic banks, but increased the stability of banks with a lower level of capitalization. The impact on the Z–score of banking system liquidity policy measures and the policy interest rates cuts is significantly lower in the case of domestic banks, amplified for less-capitalized banks (except for the category regarding banks’ solvency), while their impact on large banks remains statistically insignificant